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Educative entertainment

  • 14/09/1995

The New Science Journalists is packed with the kind of science reporting that is intelligent, well-written, entertaining and educative. The editors of the book, like the participants of the Blinding with Science conference, feel that the general public lacks understand- ing and appreciation ofscience.

A few people have suggested that the scientists' lack of communication skills might have something to do with the common misconceptions about science among the general public.

What is heartening is that most of the articles that have been selected to show good science journalism are not from the pages of unheard-of science journals. Instead, there are stories from the US News & World Report, Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker and a number of local newspapers. The writers of these pieces are from diverse backgrounds -while one of them is an English major, another nearly abandoned science after studying physics for 4 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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